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A New Life/Everything Dies
This is the eighth episode of the A New Life series. It is also the Season 1 finale. The group arrives at Atlanta trough the interstate. There are abandoned cars everywhere and the streets were full of zombies, forcing Craig, Kurt and Barry to zigzag between them. In the minivan, Anthony still holds the radio, waiting for another signal to confirm the location of the outpost. ---- "Shhh. It's on again. It says the outpost is downtown, by a gas station, like I told you. Listen!" said Anthony as the warning military signal started again "Attention all people in the area of Atlanta, Georgia. The U.S. Military haves a plan to evacuate everyone from the city and take the living to a safe shelter, where they can live past till the plague ends. Every living person must come to Downtown Atlanta and look for the military outpost, stationed near the "Garrison and Son" gas station. All people are welcome, except people who got any cut or bite from the beasts. The military will proceed to evacuate people with choppers and trucks every hour. Signal off." "You know that gas station, Craig?" asked Leon, after hearing it. "Yup. We'll be there in a few minutes if everything goes- YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" he was saying but got interrupted as a roadblock showed right next he took a turn. Craig stopped the minivan and got out. Kurt and Barry pulled off their vehicles too and everyone reunited by them. "What the fuck are we going to do now?" asked Kurt, pissed off by the abandoned car that were blocking their way. "Maybe there is another way to get there?" suggested Pete. "No. This was the only one I knew. I don't suppose any of you know another way to get there, do you?" asked Craig and got no response. "Fucking great. All of us lived in this shithole and none of us knows another way to the fucking outpost." "We still can walk there..." suggested Anthony. "That's fucking stupid, Tony Boy." interrupted him Barry "We can't leave everything we have here to scavengers to take." "We can't just stop here either, Barry. Your bike make so much noise that probably the whole Atlanta will be all over us in a few minutes." said Pete. "It wasn't my idea to get to the middle of a hoard, Pete. When I said it was a bad idea, everyone ignored it!" replied Barry, getting angry. They both inclined their heads to each other, getting fingers from touching noses. Barry was taller than Pete, and was really intimidated. Pete started regretting doing that. "Will you two just stop? Fighting won't help shit right now!" said Angela, getting herself between the two. "We have precious little time to figure out what we'll do now." "Aaaaaand we are about to get a lot less. I'd say we got ten seconds until kill or be killed, to be exact." said Leon, as a group of the dead came from a corner, following the noise of the motorcycle. "Shit." said Pete as he grabbed his pistol. He got shooting lessons from Kurt and Angela last week, and was finally trusted enough to have his own by Barry just a few days ago. "Don't!" said Barry, putting Pete's pistol down. "Look at it, it's too many, we can't kill them all. We gotta move." "What about the supplies? We can't just leave it here!" said Sarah. "Grab some ammo and the melee weapons and fuck the rest. We don't have any use for food or tents dead!" Barry ordered "Now let's fucking MOVE!" They all opened the minivan back and grabbed the ammo and weapons, as Barry ordered. Craig got a wrench from his toolbox, Kurt an hatchet, and Barry himself got the crowbar, the last one. Angela grabbed the rifle and put its bag on her back. They all got a few rounds of ammo and snuck it on whatever pocket they had and rushed away from there, as the hoard of probably hundreds got closer to the vehicles. ---- They eventually lost the heard from sight. They were now a quarter away from the outpost, according to Craig. The group entered a back alley to avoid another group of zombies that hopefully didn't noticed them. "Kurt, can't I have one of these too?" whispering asked Nate, pointing at Kurt's Glock that belonged to his father. "Absolutely fucking no. You're too young for this shit." the older brother replied, almost instantly. "Look, I'll show it how to use it when you turn eleven, okay? But right now, you can't have one. It's not a toy." "I'm just one month of turning eleven, Kurt!" he insisted. "I already said no. Now drop it. I need to stay focused so we don't get ourselves killed, okay?" he harshly declined. "Okay." Nate said, sorrowful. "Isn't that the gas station over there?" asked Pete, sighting a big red gas station sign. "Yes, that's it. The outpost should be right..." started saying Anthony, but stopped as they got away from the alley. The outpost was there, yes. But it was completely destroyed. There were zombies everywhere and corpses of unknown people and soldiers scattered through it. It got attacked before they could get to it. "Here." he finished the sentence, letting the radio fall to the ground. Anthony got catatonic from the shock and froze, with his mouth open. "Holy Shit." said Pete, looking at the mess "When do you think it happened?" "Maybe some hours ago. Damn, we're too late." cursed Craig. "Anthony? Anthony, honey? Are you okay?" asked Sarah, grabbing Anthony by the arm. He was still unresponsive and just looked at the place, mumbling hardly audible negatives. "No... No... No, this can't... This can't be... They... They were here... They were supposed to be saving us... What... What happened?" "Looks like there's been a change of plans." said Leon. "Pleaaaase... Someone..." a manly voice was heard. "What the fuck?" shouted Kurt, got by surprise. "Who the hell said this?" asked Barry. "Over here... By the jeep... Help me..." the man said They walked to the jeep to find a blonde soldier, with both of his legs devoured, bleeding to death. The vision was such a shock to the people that Nate covered himself behind Kurt and Sarah threw up. Pete looked to the nametag at the soldier's uniform, it said his name and his patent. Private Taylor. "End this, please... The pain..." begged Taylor as he looked to Pete's eyes. Pete could see the suffering he was being through, and a tear rolled down his eye. "Kill me... Please..." Taylor asked again. "What... What the hell happened here?" Pete asked, scared by the destruction of the camp. "The choppers... It turned out to be a bad idea after all... It attracted those things... Hundreds... Everyone is... I'm the last one..." he struggled to say. "So you were really evacuating people? The government really started to do something?" asked Angela, about to cry from seeing the suffering of the private. "The government? Hell no, miss... The government... fell... a week ago... We were doing this on our own... We gotta look out for each other... right?" he said, starting to struggle even more. Taylor cough a lot of blood on his face. Pete quickly couched by his side and cleaned it with his shirt. The soldier looked at him with thankfully eyes that were started to pass away. "Please... End this suffering... Shoot me..." he asked again. "What do you mean the government fell? Ain't nobody doing anything to sort this out?" asked Anthony, freaking out. "No... The white house... the UN... it all collapsed... The president now... Is probably one of those things too..." he said. "Are you saying there is no more hope in this world?" asked him Anthony, freaking out more and more. He crouched at the side of Taylor and grabbed him. "We are doomed forever? This can't be true! You're lying! You HAVE to be lying! Tell me the real truth! TELL ME!" he started yelling as he started to shake Taylor by the collars, crying unstoppably now. Taylor passed away while Anthony was still shaking him, in denial. He closed and pressed his still tearing eyes, as he wouldn't let go from the soldier's coat. "THIS CAN'T BE TRUUUUUUUUEEEEE!" he screamed to the sky. "Anthony. Anthony. ANTHONY!" said Pete, grabbing him by his shoulders "This soldier is dead! Let go of him!" Anthony let go of Taylor's mutilated dead body, who hit the ground again, his eyes still open. The scene was so sad that almost everyone at the group was tearing up now, sorry for both Taylor and Anthony. Even Barry and Leon, the "tough guys" were saddened by it. Anthony got up and rushed to Sarah, hugging her tight and crying on her shoulder. Pete couched at the side of Taylor's body again and closed his eyes. He wiped his own tears as he put the gun between the eyes of the soldier that he never met before, but that the death had the most effect on him this far, and pulled the trigger, preventing him from coming back. "What the hell are we going to do now?" asked Craig "We lost our supplies, our cars, even our tents! And now we know this will never be sorted out! We're fucked!" "We haven't lost that shit, Craig. We can still go back there and grab it. That fuckers probably cleared out by now." replied Barry "Yeah, but what's the point of it now? We know nobody is doing shit to get things back to normal." said Craig again. "Do you want to die, Craig?" asked Pete. "Excuse me?" he didn't understand. "Do you - Want - TO DIE?" he asked again. "Hell no I don't wanna die!" he angrily answered. "So stop being such a pussy about it. Tell you what: If nobody is doing anything to get things back to normal, then we'll do it! If no one is going to rebuild civilization again, then WE WILL!" Pete started "Of course that without the government will be harder, but... Now we got the chance to do it ourselves! During all of our lived, we sit back at our couches, waiting for the government to do something. Now that we know they won't, who is going to do it? I'll tell you who: US! We can't wait for others to do shit for us anymore. Now, it's the survival of the fittest. Now, it's do or die. If we don't get ourselves together and work as one to live past this, we'll all end up like this poor bastard here!" he said, pointing to Taylor's dead body. "Kid is kinda right, you know?" said Barry. "I don't want to die yet." he continued "I'm still young, I still have a lot to live, and I WANT to live it. And if that means going around with a gun on my waist, risking my life every second to protect my friends, then I'll fucking do it. Some day, things will get back to normal. It can take a while, but if we all do our parts, this day will eventually come." "Pete's right." said Kurt "It won't be an easy trip, but it ain't impossible. Nothing is impossible." Kurt put his hand at Pete's shoulder, showing his support. Pete looked at Angela, her eyes full of pride. He looked to the faces of everyone in there. Some of them were still reluctant, but he knew he could count with at least some of them. Angela put her hand over Kurt's. Leon walked to the three and put his over Angela's. Even the little Nate stayed by his side. And to Pete's surprise, Barry walked to him, and for the first time since they met, he smiled. He put his hand over Leon's hand and said: "I think you just got a new fan here, kid. You have a strong opinion. I like that, and I respect that." "Thanks, Barry. I appreciate it." said Pete, still surprised to see something soft coming out from Barry. "Craig? Sarah?" he stopped before asking for Anthony, feeling bad for seeing his friend like that. He decided to leave him to himself. "I... I don't know man. I'm good with whatever you say. I mean I'll do my part, as always..." said Craig, nervous. "Guys... Give us a little time, okay? I don't feel like he can decide something right now." said Sarah, sorrowful, still holding an hysterically crying Anthony. "Sure." gently said Pete "But we need to get back to the cars, people. We need to get the hell out of Atlanta, or at the very least grab what we can." Everyone agreed with Pete, and they left the outpost. Pete stayed behind and gave a last look at the last hope the group had, now completely destroyed by the zombies. He looked to Private Taylor's dead body and silently bade farewell to the unknown man that he knew gave his own life to try and save people like them. ---- On the way back to the vehicles, everyone was silent. Anthony apparently calmed himself down a little, but was still visible shaken and was still sobbing audibly. Sarah was holding him by his shoulders, comforting him, really preoccupied about her boyfriend mental state. Pete and Angela were also holding each other. Pete's mind was still at the outpost. So much happened in like, one or two minutes, maybe. Who knows? He didn't knew he could be that motivational, but now that the thing was done, he was starting to believe in it himself. The group got back to the roadblock and found the vehicles, but all of their supplies and fuel were gone. They were stuck at Atlanta. "Who the fuck did this?" asked Kurt, incredulous. "Scavengers, more like. Can't blame them though, we'd do the same. Probably" replied Pete. "I knew this was going to happen. Motherfuckers!" said Barry, angrier than ever before. "They took off the fucking battery of my bike! Of MY LITTLE GIRL! This shit was worth more than my fucking house! UUUUUURGH! And the fuckers thought it would be funny to fucking fill the tires with knife holes!" "It's getting late. I doubt we'll manage to get out of Atlanta today, we can still use them to sleep before we took off tomorrow at morning." said Kurt. "We can alternate on watch so everyone get some sleep, just in case these idiots are still there." agreed Pete. "I'm on it." said Angela, grabbing the rifle out of its bag. "Nah, hon. I'll do it first. You did it the whole last night, you can use some sleep." said Pete, gently taking the rifle. "I'm perfectly fine, Pete. But if you want it..." she agreed with him. ---- Later that night, Pete was tired and was almost falling asleep even standing up, when he heard a noise. It was someone opening the door of the minivan. He went to look and saw Anthony getting out and walking away from the minivan. Pete silently followed him, wanting to see what was going on. The guy unholstered his pistol and shakily pointed it to his own head. "Woah! Anthony! What the fuck are you doing, man?" he said, jumping out of his cover, trying to stop him. Anthony didn't showed any surprise or fear when he did this, neither took the gun away from his temple. He simply turned to look at him. His eyes were swollen from excessive crying. "Pete. I knew you would follow me. About your speech back at the outpost. That's complete bullshit. We can't do anything. We're doomed. We're doomed, we're hopeless and WE'RE ALREADY DEAD." he said. "Drop the gun, buddy. You don't want to do this" said Pete, slowly approaching Anthony. "I wish I was like you. Strong, with the guts to do whatever it takes. You went to look for Angela. You saved her. All I did for Sarah was run and hide in a stupid hipster café shit. We would have died if Barry didn't found us. I'm a burden. I'm useless and she doesn't deserves a piece of crap like me". "You ain't a burden, Anthony. And you ain't useless. Think about this man, it won't solve anything" "I liked pretending I was tough. I ran around with some stupid teenager "gang". Gang my ass. All we did was smoke cigarettes and weed and skateboard around the city. But something good came from that. I learned to use one of these..." "Think about Sarah, Anthony!" When Pete said it, Anthony stopped for a moment, thinking about it. He then finally said it: "Tell her I'm sorry. Tell everyone I'm sorry." "Anthony, NO!" He pulled the trigger. The bullet passed through his head, piercing his brain. He was already dead before hitting the floor. Pete stand there paralyzed, not knowing what to do. The gunshot woke up the other survivors, who ran to him to see what happened. "What was that? I hear a gunshot..." asked Barry "Holy Shit!" "ANTHONY!" yelled Sarah, running and grabbing his dead body. She started to cry as she hold his head. His rolled eyes in his sad, depressed face. "Nate, stand back! You don't want to see this!" said Kurt, getting on the way of his little brother. "Pete, what the hell happened? Pete? PETE?" asked Angela. "He... He just... I tried to stop him, but..." Pete mumbled, still shocked to see Anthony dead. "He was talking all crazy... I think the poor guy lost it. He couldn't take it anymore." "Damn, son. He was a damn good boy." said Craig, shocked and sad at the same time. "Anthony get back to me... Please... You can't leave me... Pleaaaase..." Sarah cried, holding her head against Anthony's chest, trying in vain to hear any heart beat. Kurt took of his cap as a sign of respect. Nate looked to him and understood the gesture, so he did the same. There they were again, all forced to face death right in front of them. Except this time was worse. They all knew the dead. Everyone liked him. "May the Lord have mercy on his poor soul." said Leon, making the cross signal. "ANTHONY! ANTHONYYYYY!" Sarah screamed, punching his chest in despair. "Sarah, stop... He's... He's gone. I'm sorry." said Pete, trying to comfort her. She collapsed to his body, crying and screaming. Nobody had the courage of breaking them up. They stand there for almost half an hour until Sarah stopped and started wiping her tears, sobbing. "We should... bury him. He wouldn't like being exposed here." she said. "But we can't dig up a -" Angela started, but stopped, realizing it would only make Sarah feel worse. "We will bury him, Sarah. Don't worry. But you need to get inside the van now. It's not safe here." Angela calmly and gently grabbed Sarah by her shoulders, comforting her, and took her back to the minivan. Everyone else looked at each other, stunned from what they just saw. "I'll do it. The rest of you... I don't know. It's not like any of us will get some sleep after this anyway." said Pete When digging up the grave, Pete looked at his friend's body and told himself: "I'm going to prove it to you that it isn't bullshit, Tony. I will make that plan work for you. So wherever you are, you'll see it. And when I'm done, you'll see it that I made it for you. Go in peace, brother." END OF THE SEASON Cast Starring: *Peter Daniels Mitchell *Angela Williams *Kurt Harrison *Nate Harrison *Barry Also Starring: *Leon Carter *Craig Tucker *Sarah *Anthony Co-Stars: *Private Taylor Deaths *Private Taylor (Alive) - Partially devoured by zombies, died from the blood loss. *Anthony (Alive) - Shot himself on the head. Trivia *First (and last) appearance of Private Taylor (Alive). *Last appearance of Anthony (Alive). *Being the season finale, this episode is twice as long as other episodes. *This episode shares the name with an upcoming fic, Everything Dies, by DominicT22.